Rock paced back and forth three times in front of the blank wall, focusing hard as he repeated in his mind, "I need a quiet place where I can practice spells."
On his final pass, a perfectly smooth door—with no handle—appeared on the surface of the wall.
He stepped closer. With just a gentle push, the heavy wooden door slid inward without making a sound.
A massive, empty room revealed itself, furnished with only a few wooden dummies for spell practice.
Rock checked the hallway to his left and right once more before stepping inside.
As soon as he crossed the threshold, the door closed on its own and melted seamlessly back into the wall of the corridor.
Glancing up at the floating orb of light overhead, Rock couldn't help feeling satisfied with how thoughtful the Room of Requirement always was.
It was a bit too empty, though—he should've thought to ask for a desk and chair.
That thought had barely formed when a soft clatter echoed from the corner.
Rock turned and saw that a desk and a backed chair had already appeared.
He hurried over, touched the desk, and confirmed it wasn't an illusion.
Then he dropped into the chair and slipped into deep meditation—there was important work to get done today.
---
[Entering "Meditation." Mental recovery rate increased. Optimal to maintain.]
[Entering "Meditation." Mental recovery rate increased. Optimal to maintain.]
[Mental Gauge: Full]
As he entered deep meditation, the icons on his interface began to flicker rapidly. When his mental gauge finally topped off again, Rock let out a long breath and opened his eyes.
It was time.
He reached into his backpack and pulled out the candy tin he hadn't touched ever since arriving at Hogwarts.
Click.
A vivid-red Sorcerer's Stone leapt out of the box and landed in his hand.
Time to analyze it…
The moment he formed that thought, the interface—silent ever since his birthday—finally displayed new messages regarding analysis.
[Contacting High-Tier Artifact…]
[Beginning deep analysis of "Matter Transmutation" and "Life Capacity Stabilization" rules…]
[Generating foundational structure for Alchemy Chapter…]
[Mental Gauge +800 → Level Up to Lv.4 (1360/1799)]
(Silver Barrier unlocked: train Mind Lock to prevent emotional leakage and manipulation.)
[Alchemy Chapter Affinity +1500 (2000/10000)]
(Affinity Requirement 5000: unlock basic material analysis and simple elemental reconstruction.)
---
Rock ignored the flashing notifications.
Right now, it felt like his very soul had been thrown into a blazing furnace. His vision no longer showed what his eyes normally saw—
Instead, everything appeared as strands of light in different colors.
Among them, one particularly thick strand stood out, pulling all his attention.
The Room of Requirement.
The thought surfaced naturally in his mind.
Just as he tried to focus more clearly on those strands, a violent, searing pain sliced through his consciousness and yanked him out of the state.
He grabbed his forehead on instinct, but the pain faded like a receding tide.
"Those threads…"
They definitely weren't ordinary.
Rock was sure of it—just attempting to get a better look nearly knocked him flat.
He closed his eyes again, trying to slip back into that strange perception.
But no matter how he tried, he couldn't reenter it.
"That doesn't make sense… Right—the panel!"
He quickly tapped open his interface—and froze.
The entire screen flashed red warnings before finally stabilizing.
Then the usual daily engraved messages returned:
[Engraving Attempts: 2/3 — Next engraving available after reaching Mental Gauge Lv.5]
[Analysis Phase 2: Brief Epiphany State Acquired — Duration: 30 minutes]
"Transmutation… matter… elements… reconstruction…"
Rock stared at the engraved text and slowly calmed down.
Maybe the answer was already right there.
He leaned back, staring at the ceiling for a moment to steady himself.
Once he felt ready, he picked up his wand, stepped over to the spell-training dummies, and prepared to make use of the panel's reward.
An epiphany state meant rapid, short-term cognitive acceleration—
So it was time to experiment.
With his wand raised, Rock closed his eyes and sorted through the tangled stream of thoughts in his mind.
Now.
He opened his eyes and unleashed spell after spell:
"Lumos Maximum!"
"Petrificus Totalus!"
One spell, then another, then another—
His mind kept firing off ideas like fireworks, and his wand moved smoother with each cast.
When he finally used a repair spell to reset the dummy, the epiphany state abruptly ended.
His thoughts were cut off mid-flow, leaving him suspended between clarity and confusion.
"That… was torture."
He pressed a hand to his throbbing brow—being ripped out of that mental overdrive had nearly choked him.
He looked around in a daze before finally regaining his bearings.
Useful moments always flew by the fastest.
Returning to the desk, Rock placed the Sorcerer's Stone back into the candy tin and started writing notes.
The epiphany was gone, but the leftover ideas still filled his mind—jumbled, incomplete, but absolutely worth recording for later training.
After filling several pages, he exhaled and set down his quill.
That was all he could整理 for now; the rest of the ideas weren't fleshed out enough to bother writing.
Now he truly understood the terrifying power of the epiphany state—
But the final engraving required Mental Gauge Lv.5.
"Why is there only one engraving left…?"
He muttered under his breath.
After experiencing it firsthand, the thought of only one more chance was painful.
But… the epiphany was based on his current knowledge.
With that realization, Rock regained his motivation.
He made up his mind: before reaching Mental Gauge Lv.5, he'd read as many books as possible—
To prepare for the next explosion of inspiration.
---
Spell Proficiency
Levitation Charm Lv.3 (760/1099)
Basic Transfiguration Lv.2 (300/599)
Mending Charm Lv.2 (320/599)
Alohomora Lv.2 (300/599)
Leg-Lock Curse Lv.2 (350/599)
Full Body-Bind Curse Lv.2 (360/599)
Lumos Flash Lv.2 (400/599)
Disillusionment Charm Lv.3 (600/1099)
The burst of inspiration had raised nearly all of Rock's spell skills, and the biggest jump came from the Disillusionment Charm—
shot straight from Lv.1 to Lv.3, thanks largely to the book he'd borrowed from the library, The Invisible Guide to Invisibility.
After weighing all the possible paths forward, Rock wrote down his next steps in his notebook.
Then he stood up and looked around.
The Room of Requirement would be his go-to spot for a long while.
That was enough for today.
His mind was too worn out to grind more skills anyway.
He walked to the door and tapped his wand against his own head.
"Disillusionment."
The door opened silently. Rock slipped into the hallway on light steps.
The fourth floor was already silent and empty—
He wondered if the trio had run into the three-headed dog yet.
Shaking his head, he headed toward the Ravenclaw common room.
After answering the bronze eagle's riddle and stepping inside, a notification popped up:
[Night Wanderer Achieved — New Skill Unlocked: Stealth Lv.0 (0/100)]